


shell

by wolfiesiyeon



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Mystery, Ominous, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26801134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfiesiyeon/pseuds/wolfiesiyeon
Summary: it only takes one friendly stranger to make another perceive life in a different light.
Relationships: Kim Minji | JiU/Lee Siyeon
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	shell

Brittle between the fingers, handle with care.

Pry hard enough and one will break.

Withered to touch and fragile beneath the palm.

Refill the empty entity.

Hopeless.

“Where you headin’, pretty stranger?”

A solitary light source above Siyeon’s head illuminated her features to the stranger who had just entered the train, an eyebrow raised in curiosity as she approached. Her raven locks of hair were pushed back, over her shoulders as the suit that clung to her top half mystified her presence amongst the overwhelming isolation engulfing the entire carriage. Siyeon didn’t turn at the silk-toned voice.

Eyes trained upon the scattered raindrops painting the window from the outside.  
There was stillness as the stranger hovered. “Nowhere.”  
Brittle between the fingers. Handle with care.

An abrupt retaliation, gentle in delivery. “There’s always somewhere.”  
Long, black nails tapped unrhythmically against one's thigh; Siyeon inhaled deeply. First rule, on an empty train, do not interact with the only other person occupying it. From her peripheral vision, Siyeon could sense the stranger lightly admiring her side profile, eyes leisurely scanning her features.

Neither moved, neither even seemed to breathe yet the interaction was nothing out of the ordinary. Siyeon contemplated ignoring the woman, all feelings within herself having evaporated a long time ago. Hollow.

Finally, she broke the silence, recognising the intrigue of the other woman.  
“Lost…” Her head turned in the strangers direction, eyes distant despite the locking of their gazes, “I’m getting lost.”  
The stranger took a seat, not beside Siyeon but on the opposite end of the train. Opposition. She mirrored one's actions.

She nodded once before crossing her legs over one another in a business-like manner. “That’s impossible.” Her voice was smooth, like the track beneath the train, unconsciously moving.  
“You could keep travelling forever but as long as there is a ground beneath your feet you can never truly be lost.”

A momentary scowl creased Siyeon’s forehead, her palms carefully pressed together. Nonsense. This stranger didn’t understand the emptiness filling Siyeon - it wasn’t like the solitude within the train; it wasn’t physical, it wasn’t explainable. It was simply overwhelming. The forefront of everything, every situation, every thought, every feeling. Vacant.  
Siyeon scoffed lightly, the sarcastic noise escaping from the right side of her mouth only.  
“Who are you?”

The stranger looked almost unreal, a silhouette against the railings of the train, her eyes hooded by a contrasting shadow. Only her lips were on show from her face, appearing almost grey, her dark clothing suffocating her amongst the oppressive palette, she was blending in.

“Nobody.” The woman’s expression seemed to remain neutral.  
“That’s impossible.” Siyeon quickly repeated the strangers' earlier words.  
She leaned back and all of a sudden Siyeon wondered where her eyes were trained. On her? On the floor? Elsewhere?  
“See?” The woman’s voice snaked Siyeon’s eardrums, “in a matter of seconds I managed to change your perspective.”

A tunnel.  
The dodgy overhead lights flashed erratically all of a sudden, weakly illuminating the strangers face for a few spaced out split seconds. Almost black eyes were locked on Siyeon. She almost shivered… almost.  
Pry hard enough and one will break.

“Bye then.” Siyeon rose from her seat, silence creeping up on her as her height extended, “great to meet you.” Her tone juxtaposed the supposed sincerity of the statement. She hadn’t meant what she had said in the slightest.

No response as Siyeon left the train, feet firmly placed on solid ground once more. And she was walking, leaving the station and the stranger behind.  
Everything was foreign, unfamiliar in the eyes of the woman. Rain spat down upon the brunette, soaked up in her hair, trickling unmercilessly down her t-shirt. Droplets stained her spine with their bitterness. She continued, the feeling somewhat… refreshing. Her scuffed boots splashed in puddles along the street, some of the wetness even drenching areas up to her shin. Not that she took much notice. Hands were shoved into feather-light pockets, already cold from the environmental dampness. Her fingertips ached.

Neon signs filled store windows, the language comprehensive in Siyeon’s mind yet the words not staying too long in her brain for her to make sense of. No point in reading. She was in no hurry as she advanced through the desolate city. She had nowhere to be, nowhere to go, no-one to see. Lost. That was the plan.

She exhaled, the overpowering feeling of persistent raindrops gliding across the back of her neck. Their mission? To seep under her skin.  
It was noisy, the consistent sound of running water rushing through drain pipes overhead, the odd car bypassing in urgency, careless as they drove through the storm. It was all like a waterfall over Siyeon. The chaos helped one to feel.

“You didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye.”  
The stranger. She immediately fell into a rhythmic walk beside Siyeon, feet light upon the concrete. Like a dainty ballerina.  
Siyeon flicked her eyes over to her. Despite the almost torrential downpour, she looked clean, unfazed, in control of oneself.  
A droplet of moisture fell from her parted lips, breaking into three separate pieces with the force of her gentle breath.

“You never said hello, why would you need to say goodbye?”  
Monotonous.  
“We bonded.”  
Her voice almost drowned out in the disarray.  
“No.” Siyeon shook her head, the wet feeling now uncomfortable as she concentrated, “no, we didn’t.”  
The stranger studied her face. “Well you didn’t allow us to.”  
Siyeon huffed pessimistically.  
“Because I don’t want to.”  
“Troubled.” The dark haired woman whispered, a dim street light above highlighting her face in a feeble orange hue. “You teach that to yourself? Or did someone else?”

Siyeon’s entire posture straightened, her feet almost stopping dead in their tracks, her boots grazing themselves across the sidewalk as though they had suddenly stumbled upon their words. If such a thing.  
The stranger arched an eyebrow as Siyeon frowned.  
“What?”  
The suited woman shrugged.  
“No-one is born with such an attitude. Where did you learn it?”

Siyeon stopped completely. The vast city, absent of many civilians, became suffocating within a second. Claustrophobic. She wanted to run, anywhere. The stranger averted her gaze, recognising the blatant shift in Siyeon’s expression.  
She reached out a friendly hand, softly tugging the brunette’s arm.  
“Walk with me, pretty stranger.”  
Withered to touch and fragile beneath the palm.

“I live here. I wasn’t just… stalking you.” The raven haired woman tapped her feet upon the ground, the pair of them sitting beside one another under a monumental statue in the middle of the city. It wasn’t raining as hard, a few showers here and there but nothing astronomical in comparison to previously.

“I did wonder…” Siyeon confirmed, nodding once. Her eyes were half-lidded, mouth painted in a straight line.  
Siyeon looked small in comparison to the woman, vulnerable under both her gaze and the gaze of the stars.

“It's a pretty city when it wants to be.” The stranger's shoulder was pressed against Siyeon’s, but neither of them noticed, or cared for that matter. Conjointly lonely.  
The brunette aimlessly kicked a puddle with her boot, the water dispersing outwardly. Her voice was low. “I hadn’t noticed.”  
“It's beautiful.” Pause. “It's boundless, with a bunch of areas to explore yet disassociated a lot of the time, nothing but a void.”

A hum left Siyeon’s throat.  
The woman turned to lock eyes with the other. “Kinda like yourself.”  
Siyeon visibly tensed, her chest expanding as a sign of her deep inhale. There it was again, a light, sarcastic laugh.  
“You don’t know me.”

An abandoned newspaper in front of the girls trailed across the ground, ruthlessly taken by the force of the wind against it. Siyeon pondered where it would end up, the condition it would be in.  
“But I know people like you.” The stranger captured the brunette's gaze once again, her dark eyes hollow - she was a shell of a human. “So much potential and all they need is for someone to change their perspective on the world.”  
Stillness.

“Look,” The woman outstretched a hand, two of her fingers laced with expensive-looking silver rings, “over there. At that abandoned house. What do you see?”  
Siyeon’s head twisted to the side slightly, her eyes leaving the hands of the one beside her and unhurriedly scanning the building instead.  
“Uhhmmm..” Her tone reflected that of disinterest but the cogs inside of her brain began to turn for the first time today.  
“Disaster. You know like those horror films where the entire family gets killed? Something like that.”  
“I see.” The stranger nodded slowly, “ever thought about writing a book? I’ve never read anything like that before.” Playful. Her tone was playful. Siyeon could recognise it. There was that certain twinge to her voice.

Ever so slightly her lips upturned into a subtle smile. A sign. A reflection of happiness, genuine, authentic and uncovered.  
“Is that a smile I see?” The woman attempted to maneuver around the smaller one, her eyebrows raised with her declaration.  
“No.” Siyeon bit her lip to mask the foreign expression.  
The woman slowly pulled back, fighting the grin that threatened to carve her own lips.  
Refill the empty entity.

The moon was out in its full glory, the prominent subject of the otherwise unvisited abyss that was the night sky. The raining had stopped, a crisp air filling the atmosphere, clear air for both women to breathe in. They remained under the shelter, segregated from the streets, somewhat huddled together for warmth like a pair of penguins. Neither of them knew what time it was, how long they had been sitting there together, how much time they had spent in each other's presence; neither of them cared much. Passing phrases, quick glances, silence.

“Cold?” The stranger asked, back leaning against the hard rock of the statue they were sitting under.  
Siyeon was hunched over, her sleeves every so often bundling up into fists. A habit maybe.  
“I’m okay.” She replied, gaze trained downwards.  
A nod from the woman.

“I better go.”  
Three words that made Siyeon’s head turn in the stranger's direction again, eyes studying her delicate face as she rose to her feet beside the brunette. Slow, precious movements like she was afraid of hurting the younger one.

Siyeon’s leg twitched. The woman turned to say her goodbyes, eyes locking and this time, Siyeon didn’t break the contact immediately.  
Chocolate brown illuminated by moonlight, like light across a crystal clear lake in spring - the strangers eyes reflected that of comfort. In that moment Siyeon became unconsciously captivated.  
Lost in the eyes of a stranger whose name she didn’t even know.

“Where are you heading?”  
The raven haired girl paused.  
“Home.”  
Siyeon averted her gaze momentarily, frantically scanning the empty city with her eyes before returning to the woman. A chill ran up her spine, her damp clothing feeling heavy upon her fragile limbs.

“Can I come?”  
The woman smiled, two teeth poking out from behind her lips, her eyes creasing with genuine satisfaction as she outstretched her hand in offering. Siyeon dropped her gaze quickly. She felt something in her chest. An indescribable feeling… one that she hadn’t felt a long time. It had been brief, any other person may not have even recognised it so soon.  
Her heart had skipped a beat.

Hesitantly she reached up for the raven haired woman and when the others fingers laced around her own… a shift.  
“Who are you?” Siyeon almost whispered as the suited woman pulled her softly to her frail feet.  
“You’ll find out…” She grinned warmly, intertwining their shy fingers in an attempt to keep Siyeon close.  
Hopeful.

**Author's Note:**

> not too sure what this is but I've been thinking a lot of things recently so I tried to convey some of my feelings through this. thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed! :)


End file.
